All Right vs Alright: what is the difference?
by 122 Generation
Summary: Spinoff from 'Defence vs defense'. Some think 'all right' and 'alright' have the exact same meaning, while others say they don't. Very soon, Steven and Cynthia start another heated debate to clarify this confusion.


**This piece of vocabulary always makes me fume whenever I see 'all right' used in the badly wrong context. Here, I hope future writers will get some better understanding how these two meanings differ.**

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_**Alright versus All Right: what is the difference?**_

Long after the conference at the Indigo Plateau had occurred, a new problem in grammar had arisen. Comparing and contrasting _defence_ and _defense_ was arguable, but this new problem had no arguments against it: because it was true!

It started with Steven and Cynthia sending each other business letters regarding their Pokémon League duties, and as well as organising for another championship running.

But in the process, Cynthia had noticed Steven using the word "alright" in his writing and, in her business letter, noted that it was supposed to be spelt "all right".

In a matter of days, weapons of war emerged between the two champions. Diplomacy was no longer an option since the situation was beyond help.

Cynthia even threatened to publicly smash Steven's reputation into pieces like a fragile pane of glass unless Steven saw the "error of his ways". Unfortunately for Cynthia, Steven retaliated with a letter explaining he would retaliate if she crossed the line.

Therefore, it wasn't alright (or all right? What's the difference, anyway?).

What did threatening matter, anyway? In only a week the two former champions crossed the line. To put it straight, Cynthia began spreading propaganda messages to the public saying how Steven's reputation had been torn asunder, and how he had been destroying the English language using unthinkable methods. ("It's all right…" the propaganda said. "He never knew how to speak to begin with. That's why he lost his champion title so quickly!")

In retaliation, Steven began paying Sinnoh companies to advertise attack ads against the Sinnoh champ. ("With Steven, you promote a well-educated society knowing how to speak right. With Cynthia, DEFILE LANGUAGE.")

This sparked some outrage from the former Sinnoh champ, so she flew to the Hoenn region to launch a campaign against Steven.

A day later, they were pressured by the public to engage in a debate to settle the argument.

Where did this happen? Steven and Cynthia were talking over breakfast in Veilstone, and because of their reputation the public had no trouble listening into what they were talking.

There wasn't any surprise when people felt the great debate was going to be resurrected.

A week later, journalists and reporters were crowding at the Battle Frontier's Battle Dome in the Hoenn region to watch the debate. Once again, Steven and Cynthia were sitting on opposite sides of the table with an inch thick report by their sides. Like the debate from before, it was sponsored by HSBC.

"I am here to prove to Steven, the former Hoenn champ, that there _is_ no difference between the two words. All right is merely a way of saying 'fine' or 'okay'," Cynthia said. "Honestly, I don't see why we're arguing over this. The way Steven says 'alright' is clearly a misconception of saying 'all right'. Besides, everyone knows that A-L on its own isn't a word, yet A-L-L is! This is why we must stick with 'all right', since it is spelled with proper wording."

Every face in the Battle Dome looked to Steven.

"But that is a common misconception, unfortunately," Steven said into the speaker. "True, A-L may not be a word and A-L-L is, but that has absolutely nothing to do with the meaning of 'okay' or 'fine'. My main undeniable point is that the A-L-L part of 'all right' is completely irrelevant to the intended meaning. 'Alright' is merely a synonym, and can be used in the appropriate time of saying 'fine'. 'All right', on the other hand is a way of saying 'correct'."

Cynthia raised a hand for Steven's silence. Steven stopped talking and looked at her.

"Would you like to comment, Ms. Cynthia?"

She drew a humourless smile. "What do you mean by saying 'correct'?"

"Suppose you're marking a test," Steven said. "If that test happened to be final mark of 100%, wouldn't that be the sense of 'all right'? After all, every part of that test is all correct, which is synonymous with 'all right'!"

"Well I disagree! 'All right' can be used both ways!" Cynthia shouted.

"Yeah! But 'all right' is just another way of saying 'all correct' or 'all true' or 'all exact'! Etcetera! Etcetera!" Steven shouted back. "It's like saying 'are you alright' as opposed to 'are you _all_ right'. To put it in another form, it's like saying 'are you okay' as opposed to 'are you all correct'. I don't understand why we're arguing over this, when there are two clear definitions separating the two words!"

"You don't know what you're talking about, Mr. Steven!" Cynthia shouted. "At least half the world uses 'all right' in this context!"

The two former champions continued to yell at each other from opposite sides of the table.

BAM

A wooden hammer smashed on the space between them – the bearer being Wallace.

"Everyone! Get along!" he said. "Get along."

Steven and Cynthia could only stare at Wallace for a long quiet moment, and then returned their glares at each other. Soon enough, they had nothing more to say and moved their heads aside.

But Wallace then said, "Does either honourable speaker have anything more to say?"

"Actually, I do," Steven turned back to face the microphone.

For once, Wallace actually noticed that Steven's report was considerably thicker than Cynthia's – at least by an entire inch. Already, Wallace could predict who the outright winner in this debate was.

"My final word is that you can't take two similar sounding words and merge them with the same meaning, that should be illegal," Steven said. "To say 'all right' is the same as 'alright' is no better than comparing 'already' with 'all ready'. Those two have completely different meanings, so how can they be the same?!"

Steven leaned back on his chair afterward.

The audience stared at Cynthia, and waited for her response.

But she nothing to say.

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In the week that followed, Cynthia was under fire from the public as she had to make amends to her argument. She was forced to submit a series of essays explaining her usage of the language, and about the differences between words with 'al' and 'all'.

Finally, on one day, Cynthia handed in her completed works to the Indigo Plateau.

Later on, that night, Steven quickly ran over to where Cynthia was staying at the Indigo Plateau, knocked on her door, and presented her with a bunch of orange flowers as a token of friendship. In his opinion, he might have exaggerated it by bending on one knee as he held it to her.

"It's alright, Steven," Cynthia barely smiled.

"You got that right," Steven still kept his head down and the flowers up.

Cynthia took the flowers and, intentionally, reached her other hand out and pulled Steven up.

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**Feel free to argue if these two are any different, but I know I'm right, and probably everyone who takes care of what they're writing.**


End file.
